Welcome to RemoLabs! This research series shares insights from anonymized customer data from RemoFirst's Employer of Record platform, plus surveys and third-party market research. We then share our findings to help you hire smarter and navigate global expansion.
Most hiring reports tell you what companies plan to do. This one tells you what they did.
The RemoFirst Global Hiring Index is built from anonymized data on hires actually made by more than 10,000 companies across 185+ countries. When we say Germany was the #1 hiring country in July, that comes from signed employment contracts, not a survey or a forecast.
We publish it monthly because the market moves monthly. One edition is a snapshot. Six editions, March through August 2026, show which patterns hold and which were noise. Here's what we found.
The short version: roles were predictable, locations were not. The same job topped the charts every month, while the fastest-growing region changed every single time.
What Stuck: Software Engineer Was the #1 Role Every Single Month
Six months, six different market conditions, one role at the top. Software Engineer was the most-hired role globally in every month of the data. Even in August, when its hiring dropped 22% from the previous month's high, it still finished on top.
That's not surprising once you look at how international hiring starts. Engineering is the most location-flexible role there is. The work is remote-native, the skills transfer across borders, and the tooling looks the same in Lisbon as it does in Manila. It’s often one of the first roles companies look beyond their home country to fill.
The more interesting point is what AI has done to that demand. It hasn't reduced it. Companies still need engineers to build, integrate, and maintain AI products, and that work is shifting demand rather than shrinking it.
Specialist Roles Are Growing Faster
Software engineering wins on volume. Specialist technical roles win on growth.
- AI Engineer grew in four of six months: +50% in April, +133% in May, +29% in June, and +43% in August.
- QA Engineer was the surprise. Hiring tripled in July, then grew another 67% in August.
The QA spike makes sense in hindsight. If AI is writing more of the code, someone has to test it. Both talent pools are small, which makes these the roles most likely to push a company to look beyond its own borders.
What Stuck: Europe Held the Largest Share of Hires Every Month
In four of six months, Europe accounted for roughly half of all international hires. Even in June, when Latin America surged, it was still the single biggest region.
Employment law likely plays a role. Many European countries have no at-will employment, strict termination rules, and heavy scrutiny of contractor misclassification, from IR35 in the U.K. to false self-employment rules in Germany. Hiring a contractor and hoping for the best is a real risk, which can make an Employer of Record a better fit.
Two more factors help. Europe has deep talent pools across its Western, Central, and Eastern markets, and its time zones overlap with North America's morning and Asia's afternoon.
What Stuck: Seven Countries Made the Top 10 Every Month
The #1 spot kept changing hands, but the same seven countries anchored global hiring in all six months.
The quiet constant: only the Philippines and Spain stayed in the top 5 all six months. Spain did it without ever reaching #1.
Beyond this core, 10 to 15 new countries join the map every month. With an Employer of Record, a single hire anywhere is possible, so the long tail keeps growing.
What Shifted: No Region Held the Growth Crown
No region was the fastest grower two months in a row. If your hiring strategy depends on one market staying hot, six months of data says otherwise.
Some of this may follow budget calendars more than hype. North America's March spike lines up with Q1 budgets being approved. The Pacific jump in July matches Australia's fiscal year, which starts July 1. August's tiny top figure fits the usual Northern Hemisphere summer slowdown.
Some of it is structural. Saudi Arabia and the UAE are investing heavily in becoming business and tech hubs. Latin America rides nearshoring demand from U.S. companies that want time-zone overlap and lower costs, and that hiring tends to arrive in bursts.
What Shifted: Three Countries Traded the #1 Spot
Germany led three times (March, April, July), the Philippines twice (May, June), and the U.K. broke through in August for the first time.
Each leader tells you something about the kind of hiring happening that month:
- Germany is Europe's largest economy, with a big engineering workforce and very strict employment rules. It's a natural high-volume EOR market.
- The Philippines is a global hub for customer support, operations, and back-office roles, with strong English and familiarity with U.S. business practices.
- The United Kingdom is often a company's first European hire, and IR35 pushes it toward EOR. August may reflect companies building EMEA teams ahead of Q4.
The pattern: Germany and the U.K. lead in months dominated by engineering and knowledge work. The Philippines leads when operations and support hiring take over.
How to Read an 800% Spike
Italy grew 800% in March. China grew 700% in July. The Netherlands grew 500% in August. None of that means you should rush to hire in Italy.
Small numbers make huge percentages. A country going from 1 hire to 9 is an 800% increase. One company building a team of five or ten can create a spike like that on its own. LatAm shows the same effect at the regional level: its share of global hires nearly doubled to 9% in June, then cooled back to 6% by August.
The better signal is repetition. Austria appeared on our emerging markets list three times (April, May, and August), more than any other country. Three appearances at 100% to 400% tell you more than one country hitting 800% once.
There are a few plausible reasons for Austria’s repeat appearances: its shared language with Germany, similar talent base, and a less crowded market.
Poland, Mexico, and Australia each appeared twice, with clear potential drivers behind them: Polish engineering talent, U.S. nearshoring to Mexico, and Australia's fiscal calendar.
What to Do With Six Months of Data
- Plan around roles, not regions. Role demand was the most predictable thing in the dataset. Decide what you need to hire first, then treat location as a flexible choice.
- Treat spikes as signals, not strategy. Add a spiking country to your watch list, and commit budget only if it shows up again over the next two to three months.
- Follow the repeat risers. Markets that companies keep coming back to suggest real hiring success, not one-off experiments.
The map changed every month and will keep changing. You don't need to predict where the next hot spot will be. You need to be able to hire there quickly when it appears.
The Global Hiring Index is published monthly. Explore the full data at remofirst.com/global-hiring-index.
About This Data
Our data is anonymized, drawn from customer insights and trends, and gathered through surveys of hundreds of HR and People Ops leaders globally. While this does not include millions of data points, it's collected from thousands of companies globally that are open to, and already hiring, talent in countries around the world.
